The Sri Ganganagar police in Rajasthan on Wednesday night claimed to have cracked the abduction and murder case of a medicine shop operator with the arrest of six persons, including a woman who was reportedly in a live-in relationship with the victim.
The accused have been identified as Sukhwinder Kaur alias Radhika (40), a native of Malout; her two sons, Gurpreet Singh alias Bunty and Amandeep Singh alias Bobby Nagra of Tapakhera, Malout; their associates Sikandar Singh of Sham Khera and Satpal Singh of Gurusar Jodha in Muktsar; and Sukhwinder’s son-in-law, Gurdarshan Singh of Hanumangarh.
They have been booked for allegedly abducting and murdering Kapil Jindal, who operated a medicine shop in Sri Ganganagar.
According to the police, Kapil died shortly after being abducted from his rented residence around 2 am on Sunday following an alleged assault. His body was allegedly placed in the trunk of a car and later thrown into the Indira Gandhi Canal.
Kapil’s body was later recovered from the Masitawali Headworks of the canal.
The case was initially registered as one of abduction and assault on the basis of a joint complaint filed by Kapil’s maternal uncle, Vinay Garg, and his father, Tejpal Jindal. It was later converted into a murder case.
Police said Sukhwinder Kaur was married to Shamsher Singh, an employee of the Punjab Water Resources Department. She reportedly came in contact with Kapil during a visit to a shrine in Jalandhar. Following her husband’s death about a year ago, she allegedly began assisting Kapil in running his medicine shop. The two had reportedly been living together in a rented house for the past six months.
According to investigators, Sukhwinder’s two sons, who had been arrested in a drug trafficking case four years ago, were released on bail about a month ago. Police said the sons allegedly suspected that their mother had handed over her financial settlement money to Kapil.
Investigators alleged that Bunty and Bobby, along with their two friends and brother-in-law, reached Kapil’s residence around 1 am on Sunday. They allegedly assaulted him, tied his hands and feet and forced him into the trunk of their car. Sukhwinder was also taken along, police said.
Police further alleged that upon reaching Hanumangarh, the accused realised Kapil had died. They then allegedly instructed Sukhwinder to return to Sri Ganganagar and tell police that unidentified persons had assaulted and kidnapped him.
She later informed the police accordingly but eventually came under suspicion during the investigation, officials said.
